Tuesday, 18 December 2007

Go for greenhouse gas growth

Good news, fellow citizens. The Federal Govt has decreed that all households must contain and additional item of CO2 spewing electronic equipment by 2013. Either that, or your smallish, reasonably energy efficient TV must be tossed on the scrap heap and replaced with a CO2 guffing plasma screen the size of a minke whale.

Yes, we're all switching over to digital TV by diktat. We've had a digital set top box for years - best gizmo I ever bought. I fail to see why the government has to crack the whip here. If you want to sit in front of a fuzzy screen with crap sound, then go right ahead - that's your choice. If you can't be arsed to spend $99 on a digital set top box, that's your problem, not mine and certainly not the governments.

I wonder if they will introduce a special pension and dole-bludging supplement to ensure that eldsters and drug addled hippies don't end up on the streets because they can no longer tune into the Days of our Lives.

Then again, I am sure all the dole bludgers and drug addled smelly people are all on Foxtel, which means they are more digitally aware than our household. Those that sit around all day with their face in a bong are more likely to have a great home entertainment system compared to those that have limited leisure time.

Hell, I am off track here. Digital TV is great. But it's not the governments job to tell people how to watch TV. I bet the law of unintended consequences is that once people find out how much better it is, they spend more time on the couch and we get even fatter as a nation.